After Two Deaths in One Week at Spreckles Mansion, the Focus Turns on Shacknai, Ex-Wife

The death of 6-year-old son Max after a fatal fall at the Spreckles mansion last week has turned uneasy spotlight on Jonah Shacknai and ex-wife Dina's marital problems going back several years.

The two had violent struggles in their marriage and made accusations of a serious nature against each other before they got a divorce.

Several media organizations got hold of police reports detailing the violent account of marital problems of the Shacknais, ranging from as early as 2007.

According to KGTV Channel 10 and KFMB Channel 8, police had received complaints from both Jonah and Dina about marital abuse. One accusation Dina made was that Jonah had unleashed his dog on her, while the husband accused her of trying to strangle him.

Dina had also made a written statement to the police stating that she feared Jonah would seriously harm her. Jonah is the CEO of a large pharmaceutical corporation. He is very clever and very powerful. I feel scared of what he is capable of doing to me physically via the dog as well as the lengths he would try to go to 'destroy' me in any way he was able to do so, said the complaint, according to the New York Post.

In 2009, Jonah said in a complaint to the police that he was assaulted physically by his wife.

The couple's violent came in media's focus after two violent deaths at the Medicis CEO's historic Spreckles mansion. Max Shacknai died of injuries he suffered in a fall at the California mansion, days after Jonah's girl friend was found dead hanging at the place.

Max had fallen from a staircase at the Spreckles mansion in Coronado last Monday. Police had said it was a case of tragic accident. When paramedics found the boy on last Monday he was not breathing and did not have pulse.

Two days after the boy's fall, Shacknai's 32-year-old girlfriend was found dead in a bizarre fashion at the mansion. Shacknai's brother, who was staying at the mansion, found her hanging from a second-storey balcony. She was nude and her hands and feet were bound with electric wires.

Shacknai was reportedly not at home at the time of the death of his girl friend Rebeccca Nalepa, who is of Burmese origin. She had been dating Shacknai for the last two years, and little Max had been under her care when he had the fatal fall.

An autopsy of Nalepa's body was completed, but it is not clearly established whether her bizarre death was a suicide or murder. Deepening the mystery surrounding her death, it emerged that a party had been held at the mansion on Tuesday, a day after Max's fatal fall. The following night Nalepa died in mysterious surroundings.

Shacknai's brother Adam was staying at a guest house on the property at the time of Nalepa's death. He reportedly cut the cords to bring her down and save her life, before calling up police. Emergency crews tried to resuscitate her, but she was later reported dead at the scene.

The San Diego County Sheriff's Department has said the circumstances of Nalepa's death were suspicious. He said the woman died a violent death and though suicide was a possibility the circumstances were bizarre.